Rhodes Recreation Centre

Rhodes Recreation Centre

Background to Project

The Rhodes Recreation Centre is a community project located in the Rhodes West Station Precinct. In December 2012, City of Canada Bay Council endorsed the concept plan for this precinct. Council and Walker Street Development Pty Limited (the developer) then entered into a Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) in December 2014.

The Planning Proposal for the Rhodes Recreation Centre passed the Planning Gateway assessment on 16 March 2015 and was publicly exhibited from 12 May to 16 June 2015. During the exhibition period, the idea of a recreation centre in Rhodes was supported by the community. The VPA provides funding to Council for the development of the facility.

Under the VPA, the Recreation Centre is described as a childcare centre, retail space and commercial space with café, car-parking, community facilities and a leisure centre. The initial leisure centre design featured a pool, gymnasium, basketball courts, general exercise areas and relevant plant and amenities. The developer is required to fit-out these spaces including insulation, sound-proofing, multi-purpose court fixtures and basic café fixtures. Retail spaces will be delivered as a cold shell.

As outlined in the VPA, Council was required to enter into a Design and Construct (D&C) contract with the developer to build the Rhodes Recreation Centre. At the 2 May 2017 Council Meeting, Council resolved to endorse the D&C arrangement and issue delegated authority to the General Manager for project expenditure.

Cost

The indicative design cost of the Rhodes Recreation Centre is approximately $60 million.

Size of the Recreation Centre

The podium consists of three stories with a total of 13,500 sq m. Council’s section of the podium (the Rhodes Recreation Centre) is two storeys with a total of 9,100 sq m. The key components of the centre are as follows:

Public Car Park: proposed to include 165 spaces, owned and operated by Council.

Child Care Centre: proposed as a 51-place facility catering for ages 0-5 years.

Café: proposed to sit adjacent to a Council asset, such as the Health and Wellness Centre or swimming pool, as a complimentary facility or service.

Health and Wellness Centre: proposed to include a pool area, gymnastics area, multi-function courts, general exercise areas, community meeting spaces and relevant plant and amenities.

Lettable Space: proposed as Council income-generating asset along public domain frontages to the Recreation Centre site. Lettable spaces must deliver a community benefit.

Community consultation 2017

The design process has been formally underway since March 2017. A refined concept design (Revision 6) was presented to the Council on 27 July 2017. The design formed the basis for community engagement, conducted for 28 days from 22 August to 19 September 2017. The theme of the engagement was to ‘breathe life into the space’.

The engagement aimed to refine and test the concept design, as well as assumptions made for the use of the Recreation Centre. Council requested feedback on the following spaces:

Heart of the centre, a generous community space on the ground floor

Aquatic area

A gym, health and wellness rooms

Private enterprises that may occupy the lettable four tenancies that are required to deliver community benefit.

The main engagement tool was an online survey (341 surveys were completed) with an embedded 90-seconds 3D fly-through animation (featured below). Both the survey and animation were offered in English, Chinese and Korean. The Rhodes Recreation Centre Project Team also spoke directly to residents at pop-up stalls around Rhodes.

Council’s concept design for the Rhodes Recreation Centre was embraced by the community. City of Canada Bay is deeply grateful to all who participated in the engagement process. Community input is invaluable for further refining the design and use of the space.

View the results of the community engagement in the Outcome Report (also included in 'related items' below).

You can also scroll down to watch the 90-seconds 3D fly-through animation (available in three languages) that formed part of the Rhodes Recreation Centre engagement.

Development Application

A Development Application for the project is yet to be lodged with Council.

Stay in touch

If you wish to be informed of the project progress, please check this webpage or sign up for Council's @rhodes e-newsletter.

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